Ghostpatrol – it’s art, not vandalism!

For quite a while I have been cyber-stalking some Melbourne artists – Miso and Ghostpatrol. I regularly check out their websites, read about them and curse myself every time I miss their shows in Melbourne.

A few months ago, a wonderful thing happened. Ghostpatrol put a picture on my dad’s surgery in Fitzroy! (see pic below). I was visiting family in Melbourne, so saw it as I was driving by.

My dad and his Ghostpatrol art

The broken surgery window you can see is part of the story too. Very early one morning, someone had pushed in the glass pane. Dad did a temporary repair, and the next night, the picture appeared.

My parents were immediately suspicious. They had a crazy theory that someone had broken the window (vandalism), and then pasted up a picture (graffiti). I had to energetically convince them that it was Art, and that they should NOT under any circumstances scrape it off. I shudder to think what they would have done if I hadn’t had been there …

It was so incredibly satisfying to see the beautiful brown paper boy peering out at me from the wall. Not just a picture on a website. Within a few days, the picture had been peeled away by wind and rain, but for a short time, the virtual had become real.